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Jeremy Lin: MSG Shares Hit All-Time High

By

Matt Phillips

Feb 13, 2012 11:17 am ET

Associated Press

We have virtually no compunction about taking unsightly victory laps whenever we chance to hazard a decent guess on where the markets going. So allow us this quick trot around the MarketBeat velodrome, with Madison Square Garden’s shares up 4.1% early, schooling the broader S&P which is up a mere 0.5%. The stock hit an all-time high of $31.34 early Monday.

While it’s tough to prove, we think Lin’s 38-point performance against the Lakers Friday night, and his gutsy 20-point effort versus Minnesota Saturday — including hitting a free throw with less than 5 seconds left to lift the Knicks to their fifth straight win — might have something to do with it.

Laura Albanese of Newsday reports:

“Jeremy Lin” was the fourth-searched term on Google [Saturday] afternoon and was trending nationally on Twitter. By Thursday, Lin’s presence had boosted the team’s average Nielsen household rating on MSG Network, with ratings jumping 36 percent compared with the season average, according to a news release.

Unfortunately, it might already be time to take profits on this kind of a trade. Analysts that cover MSG told us that ratings and merchandising — Lin jerseys anyone? — aren’t big drivers for the earnings results of MSG. The fees it charges cable systems to the carry its channels are far more important. And on that count, there seems to very little movement to resolve the dispute between MSG and Time Warner that’s keeping Knicks games off that cable system. Although if Lin’s presence causes discussions to start again, that could be a good thing for the shares, analysts say.